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POLITICO 44

The act merged the War and Navy Departments into the National Military Establishment, at least nominally headed by a newly minted defense secretary. It set up the Air Force as a separate military service.

The legislation also created the National Security Council and the CIA. It established a three-member Joint Chiefs of Staff and, until Congress passed a series of reforms in 1986, gave its presidentially appointed officers operational control of the military.

Initially, the three service secretaries held quasi-Cabinet status. The act was amended, however, on Aug. 10, 1949, to put the service secretaries under the aegis of the defense secretary. At the same time, the National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense.

After the 1947 bill cleared the House, Rep. James Wadsworth Jr. (R-N.Y.), the floor manager, envisioned the CIA as “a gathering point for information coming from all over the world, through all channels, concerning the potential strength of other nations and their political intentions.

“There is no secret every nation in the world is doing the same thing,” Wadsworth added.

Wadsworth’s son-in-law was Stuart Symington, the first Air Force secretary and a future Democratic senator from Missouri.

Intelligence oversight rested with the new House Committee on Armed Services. In 1977, with the creation of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House gained greater oversight of the nation’s intelligence apparatus.